Flaming Pillars
Date Started: November 24, 2012
Date Finished: November 30, 2012
Disclaimer: I don't own the Percy Jackson series nor do I own League of Legends. This is a non-profit project and is solely for entertainment. The Percy Jackson series is owned by Rick Riordan and League of Legends is owned by RIOT respectively.
Summary: Music and Death had been companions since time immemorial, Music may forget but Death remembers, he always does, they may have escaped absolute nothingness but it is inevitable, even Death has its limits.
A/N: No chalk was harmed during the making of this chapter.
Chapter 2: Learning and Losing
Three weeks had passed since Sona arrived, three weeks of haunting nightmares about the Voidborn and nonsensical english lessons by a dyslexic demi-god, all in all this place wasn't all that bad, no invasion of horrible nightmares and visions in her mind, no mushrooms blowing up on your face every three seconds, no perverted yordles and summoners, no being shouted at by your teammates for being support even though you did your best and most importantly no dying over and over again in the most horribly creative way possible plus she always had an audience when she played music, well her audience mainly composed of spirits, skeletons and the dyslexic demi-god, when he wasn't being grumpy about the english lessons of course and here they were in a pseudo classroom with only one chair, it was weird for everyone involved Nico was younger than Sona but here he was playing teacher while Sona sat there not understanding a single word he uttered
"Do you get it now?" Nico said as he pointed at the painstakingly created english alphabet in cursive. Sona just nodded her head despite not knowing what the hell the boy was talking about "You didn't learn anything did you?"
Sona just nodded her head
"Ok then, pop-quiz, what do you call this letter?" Nico said while pointing at a small letter a
However the blue haired beauty didn't get the message and Sona still nodded and in response Nico face-palmed.
Three weeks had passed since Hades had assigned Nico to teach Sona english and to him it was three weeks of pure torture, the alphabet alone had taken hours to make and a lot of chalk had met their end at his hands, he was starting to get tired of it all. Then he looked at Sona, the girl was sleeping, apparently Professor Nico's class was boring. He sighed in defeat, when was this going to end?
The answer came to him in the form of a loud ringing sound.
Sona looked at her reflection in the river Styx, this place had its own downsides after all, it was incredibly dull once you got used to it, maybe that's why Nico's father, the god of the Underworld was so gloomy, he had been here for a millennia now and nothing exciting has happened.
Well at least she had Nico, Cerberus and her audience to keep her company. Playing ball with the dog always did lighten her mood, Cerberus was just like a big three headed puppy who hasn't seen a ball in years.
Her audience was always happy to hear her play her songs, it reminded her of her performances back home. Though it did give her some weird thoughts, in the afterlife when she and everyone she knows were dead, would she still be given the luxury to play for them? It pained her to think that she would not be able to play music for anyone. It was her voice after all.
Nico meanwhile was a fun person to be with but she couldn't help but wonder, what made him to the person he was now? She got the feeling that there was more to that kid but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"I know the answer to that." A man no older than Sona said with confidence as his partner, a woman who looked quizzically at the man.
Her head throbbed in pain as a long lost memory flashed without coherence before her eyes.
"This instrument is the key to opening the world!" A woman said as she and her troupe battled with unimaginable horrors at the foot of a gigantic gate.
Death, that was all she could get from the memory as it continued to flash by.
"And Death will find the lock." A dying prophet uttered his last words before he and his comrades were thrown into a flaming pit by the people he once called friends.
A inhumane hand shot out of the endless darkness of space as it grasped countless universes in its palm.
"Before it's too late." The remains of a mix of once great races prepared for their last stand as the incoming horde of horrors devoured everything in their way.
A being greater than gods and titans, a being that made the giants look like the small, unseen bacteria that crawled on our skin, a being who existed before time and will continue to exist after it has ended devoured everything in its way.
Were these her memories? Or were these warnings from those that had fallen to the Void, perhaps they were visions of what has happened, what is happening and what will happen.
She couldn't tell, it was weird, this hasn't happened to her in a long time, the last time it happened was years before the invasion of her world, did she have to do something? Was the Void coming to this world? Were they hunting her?
Something poked her and she almost jumped to the river in surprise "There you are! I was looking all over the place for you!" Nico poked her with the stick in his hand again when Sona didn't reply "Come on I need you to meet someone!" Nico was strangely very happy and energetic, a side she never thought the boy had, as he held Sona's hand and they dissolved into the shadows.
A few moments later and they were back at the classroom, Sona sighed, she really did not want to spend more time listening to something she couldn't understand "This is Professor Steve, he'll help me teach you english! Isn't that great!" he said with more enthusiasm than was fit for a child of Hades. Professor Steve was a kind looking ghost "Oh wait you can't understand me. Well that's about to change! It's up to you professor! Bye!" He rushed out of the room like a kid on a sugar rush. Finally, the burden of teaching a mute person was passed on to someone else.
It took him every ounce of self discipline to not jump in joy and shout at the top of his lungs.
The door was shut loudly and a clicking sound was heard, the door was now locked as Professor Steve looked at her with a hard glare as three more ghostly teachers rose from the ground.
It was made clear that she wasn't leaving this place without mastering the english language.
Ten weeks had passed and the door to that classroom had never opened, save for the times when someone left food in front of the door, but today that would all change, the door opened with a slow creaking sound as a joyous and light tune escaped from the four corners of the room as Sona gracefully exited the room, thanks to a combination of mind-probing and unorthodox teaching techniques Sona had learned how to write and read english.
Surprisingly the mind-probing part didn't hurt as much as her League Judgement.
She looked around expecting the son of Hades to pop out of nowhere but it seems as the young teenager was busy with something at the moment.
"So this is the woman my fellow Olympians had been discussing about." A voice said behind her.
She turned around to see a man in a black suit with angelic black wings much like how Kayle's and Morgana's wings. Her hands prepared to strum her instrument as the man made a thoughtful 'hmm'
"Sona was it? I must say I have never seen the likes of your instrument, the closest thing I could compare it to is a Lyre..." the man rambled on completely ignoring Sona as he continued to examine her Etwahl, the man was right about one thing though, her Etwahl was one of a kind, even in her world her Etwahl was unique and she was the only known user of such an instrument.
"Ah! Where are my manners? my name is Thanatos, the god of Death, it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Sona but as much as I would like to continue talking to you I have business to attend to and you should be out of here right about..."
Sona gave the man a questioning look as he looked at his wristwatch with the index finger of his free hand pointing upwards
"Now."
A faint cracking sound was heard as a bubble like object covered her entire form in an oblong and faster than the eye could blink she rose towards the ground.
It seems it was time for her to see the wide wide world. She felt a little sad that she didn't get to see Nico before she left.
Well, at least the god didn't stare at her chest just like so many undisciplined men before him.
The army of undeath fought the Void.
The undead lost.
They held out longer than any nation in Runeterra, longer than the League itself.
But it was inevitable, the seemingly endless flood of specters, fumbling corpses and souls trapped in metal bodies were consumed and as it was impossible to resurrect digested bodies the Shadow Isles found itself lacking in numbers for the very first time. The Voidborn's souls were uncontrollable, something greater than the Master of Metal and the Ruined King was wrestling control over the Voidborn's souls away from them.
Something that equaled their power
No
It was something greater than them, something that conquered things beyond death itself, something only second to the Creator of creators.
Whoever it was, it was powerful and its forces were attacking the undead's last standing fortress, here the dead would escape or they would perish. An eight foot tall suite of metal armor with a cape wielded a giant mace as it stood its ground firmly, most of undead had retreated into the portal for safety but the Master of Metal stood its ground against the Voidborn and so far he was holding his own, he would retreat once all the Shadow Islanders had gone.
He smashed a small Voidling to the ground as more of the small four legged arachnids latched onto his form and smashed wildly against his armor in response he faced a Voidborn who was conveniently charging a ball of energy in its mouth, he faced the Voidborn without fear as a bright yellow laser consumed his form, the beam was powerful enough to kill the Voidlings and do significant amount of damage to his armor.
It was a good thing he had a Senior Summoner's soul binded to his will.
A faint green light covered him like a small, thin fog as hot silver wax covered the dents and unnatural holes in his armor, the silver wax instantly hardened and his armor was looking as if it was brand new.
The lizard like Voidborn who fired the beam charged another one but it received a uppercut to the chin courtesy of a thick metal hand, the Voidborn accidentally fired its beam at the sky, completely missing its intended target as it sailed through the air and landing in front of its adversary who finished the monster off by smashing its face to a bloody pulp with his giant mace.
The Master of Metal pounded the earth with his mace daring any of the Voidborn to face him and in response the fiends charged at him, all kinds of projectiles sailed towards him as the other abominations charged, their roars became a mix of mindless hunger and pain as a familiar song conjured red beams of energy which sneaked upon the Voidborn from the skies.
Three seconds. All he needed to do was take all those attacks for three seconds and this wave would disappear, he prepared himself as his Summoner cast the protect spell on him, the spell summoned a circular yellow barrier around him seconds before the attacks hit him.
The barrier diverted a significant amount of damage away from the Master of Metal but it the sheer number of attacks was more than enough to put him on his knees.
His health was dangerously low now and the barrage showed no signs of stopping.
The ghastly but melodious and beautiful song stopped abruptly as the Voidborn were struck down with red energy that fell like lightning on their heads and soon the mass of charging horrors were turned into lifeless corpses
"Oh, is the Master of Metal hurt?" A feminine, seductive voice whispered into his ear "Did the nasty Voidborn hurt you?" the voice continued with mockery
Evelynn
"This is nothing wench." He said with the usual commanding tone he used as he stood up while his armor repaired itself slowly. The blue skinned woman uncloaked herself and said
"Looks like they did a number on you."
"I'm not here for simple chatter Widow Maker, why are you here?"
"Pfft you're no fun! Fine then, I'm here to tell you that you, me and Karthus are the only ones who haven't retreated yet and I believe..." She put a finger on his armored chest and continued "That it's time for us to go." The Master of Metal contemplated her words as he looked at the destruction Karthus's Requiem had caused, corpses littered the land as far as the eye could see and one, no matter how magically unadept, could still feel the lingering traces of magic. That was bad, he concluded, the Voidborn were attracted to areas with high frequencies of magic like moths to a flame and soon more would come and at his injured state he wouldn't be able to hold them back.
"Very well Widow Maker you have convinced me, let us go." A thin veil of yellow light surrounded them as several rings circled the ground they stood on and a few seconds later they disappeared in a flash of yellow.
A gate of gigantic proportions stood inside the Spider God's lair as a swirling vortex inside the gate awaited its visitors, the Spider Queen and her god had retreated but the Lich stood at guard, his red and black robes bellowed to the wind inside the cave as his hand clutched his book tightly.
His Requiem was one of the main reasons why the Void hadn't overran the undead the moment they ran out of reserves but the continuous use of his Requiem was starting to drain the Lich of his power, hopefully this would end today because right now he needed a well deserved vacation. The dark cave was illuminated momentarily by the sudden flash of yellow light and Karthus found himself looking at his fellow champions.
"That took you longer than I expected Mordekaiser." The Lich said in a tone that indicated patience rather than the mockery his words implied but rather than reply the Master of Metal, now known as Mordekaiser, wordlessly passed the Lich and the Lich in turn whispered to him "You know your mission Mordekaiser."
"Spread our curse." Mordekaiser said before stepping into the vortex and into a new world.
"Do you think we can trust him?" Evelynn asked the Lich "After all the altar lady did say that he can't be trusted."
"That's what you are for, dear Evelynn." The Lich replied in a kind tone "He may or may not be up to something." The Lich gave the woman in front of him a cold glare a contrast to his kindly tone "Whatever the case maybe I'm sure you'll find out."
"What about the horseman then? The altar spoke of him too." Evelynn asked
"I don't know but he and Mordekaiser are working together, the altar warned him not to trust Mordekaiser but it seems that currently he is but a pawn in this game. Someone else will watch him for the time being." The Lich replied "Now go Widow Maker and do not fail us!"
Evelynn gave the Lich a smirk of confidence before her powers hid her from sight.
The woman rushed to the vortex as she looked on with confidence, as long as Mordekaiser doesn't have wards or an oracle's elixir this should go smoothly.
It was a good thing Karthus had used a oracle's elixir days before the invasion so he was able to make sure that Evelynn had left before he stepped into the Vortex himself and with a great creaking sound the gate closed as the crystals powering it lost all their stored mana.
When the Voidborn comes they would be annoyed to find out that not only did fragments of the city-states escape them, the undead escaped from them too.
A/N: That's that for this chapter, tell me if I was trying too hard with the humor, I'm really not a funny person so yeah. If you're wondering why there wasn't much 'me teach you english' scenes that's because when I read it, it felt like filler so I cut the unimportant scenes and rewrote it.
I feel like this is somehow of lower quality than the first chapter so I'm worried about it.
I have a plot in the works but its not complete yet so I'll accept suggestions at the review section, so if you have an idea don't be afraid to tell me in the review section or you could just PM me.
Have a nice day and I hope to see you on my next update!